More Current Affairs:

Transcript

Investment scam victory

AM Archive - Friday, 27 July , 2001 00:00:00

Reporter:

LINDA MOTTRAM: Australian authorities are claiming a major victory after raids in cooperation with Thai authorities closed down a so-called cold calling investment scheme which could have been stripping millions of dollars from unsuspecting Australians. About 70 people have been arrested, including six Australians.

The scheme sees securities firms telephoning investors that they don't know to sell stocks; an approach that can be legitimate, but one that is sometimes not.

Peter Kell is the director of consumer protection at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which has been at the centre of the operation.

I asked him about those who've been arrested.

PETER KELL: Look, we can't provide the exact details on the people that have been detained at this point in time. But what we are aware of is that this is an action against a cold calling firm based in Bangkok. And these firms call investors in Australia illegally promoting overseas investments. And we've had a lot of Australian people lose money as a result of these activities.

LINDA MOTTRAM: And Australians involved in the actual firm that you've targeted?

PETER KELL: Our experience has been that with a few of these cold calling firms there have been allegations of Australians involved, British people, Irish people. So, yes, it is a possibility that there are Australians involved, yes.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Okay.

And for how long have you been pursuing this particular operation?

PETER KELL: Look, we've been asked some of these cold calling scams for some time now. But more recently we've been actively dealing with our Thai counterparts and we're very pleased to see this action. This is a very good example of cooperation. It's one thing to issue warnings to people, which we've been doing a lot of, but it's a very positive step forward to actually get one of these places shut down.

LINDA MOTTRAM: So has it been difficult for you to secure that cooperation with the Thai authorities?

PETER KELL: They've been very receptive but it's always a challenge when you're talking about a cross-jurisdictional enforcement activity. So they've been very receptive to the information we've given them about the sorts of problems that we've been encountering in Australia. We've had people losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to these sorts of outfits. And it seems to us more recently that their activity in Australia, calling in to Australia, has rather dramatically increased. So the Thai authorities have responded very effectively to that.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Have the Thai authorities been aware of these operations in their midst prior to you working with them?

PETER KELL: We have been talking to our Asian counterparts for some time. But while some of these cold calling operations were previously based in America and Europe, they've moved a bit more recently into the Asian region. But the level of complaints has increased rather dramatically. So we have now been more actively talking to them and this is a good result.

LINDA MOTTRAM: What's the process now for prosecuting those involved?

PETER KELL: Look, that's something that is obviously going to have to be worked out firstly from the Thai end as to how they will deal with this issue. It's not something we could comment on at this point in time.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Peter Kell, the director of consumer protection at the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.